Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy may be aware, the new and ambitious €1.3 billion Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will replace the previous forestry programme that expired at the end of 2022. The new programme is subject to state aid approval under the guidelines from the European Commission and is also subject to an ongoing strategic environmental assessment, SEA, and appropriate assessment, AA, process.

The new programme will benefit farmers, rural communities and the wider climate and environment for years to come. The Department has been engaging proactively and intensively with the Commission over the last number of months. The Commission is currently reviewing our formal state maid notification, which was made last month, on our proposed new forestry programme. They will ultimately decide whether the aid is compatible with EU rules.

As part of this deliberative process, the Commission department responsible for policies on competition, DG-COMP, is engaging in an inter-service consultation process with other departments, including with DG-ENVI, which is responsible for the Commission's policies on the environment. This process has not yet concluded but I expect a reply from the Commission shortly. In the final analysis some changes may be required to the published programme and all efforts will be towards receiving state-aid approval, while delivering on the enormous potential for forestry in Ireland.

The Deputy had a question on the cost-benefit analysis. My Department commissioned a cost-benefit analysis on the forestry creation and roads element of the proposed new forestry programme. This analysis considered the costs and benefits of the proposals and took account of a variety of factors, not all of which could be monetised, including water quality and regulation, landscape, and biodiversity, among others. The overall conclusions were positive and confirm that spending on new planting and new forest roads under the new forestry programme represent value for money to the Exchequer.

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